Roach's Bad Day
by Mangoesaregood8
Summary: Short story of Roach having a bad day. Rated T for additude.
1. Chapter 1

It was about 4:30 in the morning when Roach woke up again. He was so desperately trying to sleep, but he couldn't. He had woken up 5 times before this. Roach rolled over again trying to sleep, when he heard the bugle.

"Ugh, not now…" he said to himself. Roach dragged himself out of his bed and shuffled down to the Mess Hall.

"Morning Roach," Ghost said wide awake.

"Hey," Roach muttered barely audible.

"How'd ya last night?" Ghost asked. He seemed hyper, which happened very rarely.

"I didn't. I kept tossing and turning, and when I did sleep, I kept waking up."

"That sucks," Ghost said shrugging his shoulders. "I slept really well."

"Good for you," Roach said as he walked away. He wasn't trying to be mean, but when Roach didn't get enough sleep, he got very cranky.

Roach went and sat down next to Captain MacTavish, because he knew that MacTavish wasn't very talkative.

"Good Morning Roach," MacTavish said. He still sounded like he was half asleep too.

Roach just grumbled.

"What's wrong with you?" MacTavish asked.

"Couldn't sleep."

MacTavish just nodded and got up. Roach took advantage of his absence and put his head down on the table. Just as he got comfortable, he felt something get slammed on the table. He opened his eyes and saw a big coffee mug right in front of him.

"This might help some," MacTavish said as he sat down again.

"Thanks," Roach muttered as he started drinking his coffee. He took one sip and had to spit it out.

"What the hell is this?" He asked coughing.

"Black coffee. You're probably not used to how strong it is. Popular in Scotland."

"It can stay in Scotland as far as I'm concerned. Oh my god," Roach said. He could still feel the burn in his mouth.

MacTavish just laughed and got his breakfast. Roach was too tired to eat, and he put his head back down on the table and rested his eyes for a while. He still couldn't fall asleep. Roach went back to his room to put on his boots and vest and to get his guns. He had target practice this morning.

Roach trudged over to the target area with the rest of his team. Ghost gave his usual safety speech, and how you had to count all of your bullets. Roach nearly fell asleep. Ghost noticed, and decided to embarrass Roach by making him go first.

Roach sighed and went to the first range. Ghost had the targets pop up one at a time. Roach missed every single one.

"Looks like your shooting could use a little work, eh Roach?" Ghost asked elbowing Roach.

"Whatever," Roach grumbled.

Roach went back to the waiting area. Everyone was just staring at him. Roach didn't even care. He just kept walking till he got back to his bed. He put his gun down and took off his vest. He laid down and fell asleep. 5 minutes later, the alarm for deployment went off. Roach woke up and groaned. Why does everything have to happen today? He thought to himself. He got up and got all of his gear together. He met with his team at the hanger.

"I'll brief you on the helicopter. Move your arses. Go, go!" MacTavish shouted.

If MacTavish had to brief them on the helicopter, Roach knew this wasn't going to be an easy mission. He tried to suck it up and bored the helicopter. Roach wasn't going to be able to sleep on the helicopter. He was going to have to rely on an adrenaline rush to get him through the day.


	2. Chapter 2

Roach climbed into the helicopter, and sat in the back. If he fell asleep when MacTavish was briefing them, he didn't want anybody to know.

"You're sitting in my spot," Roach heard someone say.

"We can sit were ever we want. Go find another spot."

"Yeah, but Captains and Second in Commands get special spots," Ghost said.

Roach reluctantly got up and found another spot. MacTavish climbed in the helicopter after Meat.

"Where are we going?" Ghost asked. "This was a very sudden deployment."

"There is a possible nuclear threat in Russia, and Shepherd wants us to check it out," MacTavish said. "Ultranationalists are acting up again."

"Why not just send the NEST team in?" Roach asked. The NEST team was the one that was specialized in nuke threats. Not the Task Force. They normally just handled people and organizations that made a threat of themselves.

"Cuz the NEST team is preoccupied elsewhere with a nuclear threat. We are the only people Shepherd really has left to turn to," MacTavish said.

Roach sighed. "Where in Russia are we headed exactly?"

"Not sure. Its near the Georgian – Russian border though," MacTavish responded.

Roach groaned. The border wasn't that far away from where they were now. Roach would be going into a risky op with no sleep. He considered himself dead by morning.

"No we are going to split up into teams. Roach, Ghost, and myself, Team Alpha are going in first to eliminate any immediate targets. Archer and Toad, Team Bravo, will follow and take up a sniping position to clear any remaining hostiles in the distance. Then Meat and Royce, Team Charlie, will get dropped off 50 meters east of Team Alpha's position, and will rejoin us 25 meters north of the drop off point," MacTavish said.

Roach wasn't paying much attention, and missed half of what MacTavish said. It felt like he was droning on about nothing.

MacTavish stopped talking and rested his head on the side of the helicopter. Roach did the same and dozed off. He couldn't stay asleep though, because of turbulence.

"Could you make this ride any bumpier, Nikolai?" Roach asked agitated.

"I am sorry my friend. There is much turbulence in the air today," Nikolai said apologetically.

Roach just grumbled.

"Roach, be nice. It's Nikolai's fault," MacTavish scolded.

Roach didn't reply.

"Did you hear me Roach?" MacTavish asked.

Roach still didn't say anything.

"Roach, you will acknowledge me when I'm talking to you," MacTavish said starting to get a little annoyed with Roach.

"Whatever," Roach said under his breath.

"What was that?" MacTavish asked.

"I said yes sir," Roach said.

"That's what I thought you said," MacTavish said laying his head against the wall of the helicopter.


	3. Chapter 3

"What was that?" MacTavish asked.

"I said yes sir," Roach said sarcastically.

"That's what I thought you said," MacTavish said laying his head against the wall of the helicopter.

Roach really wasn't in the mood to be reprimanded. He knew it wasn't Nikolai's fault, but he needed someone he could lash out too.

"We will arrive at departure zone in 1 hour," Nikolai informed Captain MacTavish.

"All right, everyone make sure you've got all your gear together. Leaving ANYTHING behind," and he put extra emphasis on the word anything, "could get us all captured, or worse, killed."

Roach got up to check his stuff. His pistol was in its holster, and his ACR was attached to his hip, so it wasn't going anywhere. He had four frags, and flash bangs, and his combat knife. He was ready.

"Thirty minutes," Nikolai announced.

Roach got up and stretched a bit. He was a little stiff from sitting still in one spot for that long. His joints cracked and protested as he got up.

"Jeez, was that you Roach?" Meat asked wondering what the cracking and popping sounds were coming from.

"Yeah it was, you got a problem with it?" Roach asked.

"No," Meat said looking down. "Just wondering."

"Roach, you need to get your act together now, before you get put on kitchen duty," MacTavish said, clearly getting annoyed with Roach's ongoing attitude.

Roach rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. He knew he was being disrespectful, and normally he would care, but today he didn't.

"2 minutes, my friends," Nikolai announced. Everyone had stood up, checked their gear one last time, and stretched out any soreness that they had from sitting in one spot. The red light for their jump went off and everyone lined up. Ghost was the first to go.

"See you on the ground mate," MacTavish said before he jumped.

"Sure thing," Ghost replied jumping.

Archer, Toad, Meat, and Royce went, and then it was Roach's turn. Roach jumped, and felt the same feeling in the pit of his stomach like he was riding the Drop Zone, only a hundred times bigger. Roach waited until he was about 1000 feet over the landing zone to pull his chute, only to find out it didn't work.

"Aw come on! Why today of all days?" He shouted to himself. Roach kept pulling on the string, but no matter how many times he pulled it, or how hard, it didn't pop. To Roach's relief, when he pulled his reserve chute, it opened instantly.

'_Thank God,'_ Roach thought to himself. When Roach touched down, he disconnected himself from his chute, and stuffed it in his bag. Then he went to go find the rest of his group.

"Does anyone know where Roach landed?" Roach heard MacTavish's voice through his comm.

'_Great, not only did I almost die, but now I'm separated from the rest of my group. Today is going just peachy…'_

Roach heard something rustle to his left. He barely had time to level his ACR when Ghost popped through the bushes.

"Bloody hell Ghost. You nearly gave me a heart attack," Roach complained putting a hand over his chest to slow his heart rate.

"I've found Roach," Ghost said into his comms.

"Good. Looks like you all didn't land to far away. Start heading North West until you catch up with me," MacTavish said.

Ghost started heading North West, and Roach followed him. That's when the thought popped into Roach's head.

'_Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.'_

"Not today," Roach muttered to himself.

"You say something mate?" Ghost asked.

Roach shook his head. Now was not the time to make Ghost think that he was going crazy.


	4. Chapter 4

Roach and Ghost had been walking for some time when they finally heard some footsteps. Ghost stopped and held up his hand as a sign for Roach to stop walking. Roach froze where he was. He prayed to God that it wasn't an enemy. After a few seconds, MacTavish appeared through the wall of bush they were following. Roach had the strongest urge to run up and hug MacTavish, thanking him that he wasn't an enemy, but he figured that that wouldn't go over very well.

"Right," said MacTavish looking over Ghost and Roach to make sure they weren't injured. "Let's go find that bomb."

"Team Bravo, do you have any tangos on sight?" MacTavish asked to Archer and Toad through his earpiece.

"No sir, you're all clear on thermal," Archer replied.

"Let's keep moving, we don't have all day," MacTavish said.

"Wouldn't it be that we don't have all night since its dark out?" Roach asked.

"Does it really matter?" MacTavish asked exasperated.

"Never mind," Roach grumbled.

Team Alpha kept walking until they reached a small building. They made it unnoticed, but had a few close calls with some wild animals.

"Ghost, chill out," MacTavish said when Ghost had nearly freaked out for the fifth time after hearing a deer pass behind them. He was afraid that Ghost's constant yelps of surprise were going to get them discovered.

"You never know, it could be a spy deer.

MacTavish stopped walking and looked at Ghost.

"A what?" MacTavish asked not believing what he heard just come out of his Lieutenant's mouth.

"A spy deer," Ghost said emphasizing the spy part.

"Really though. A spy deer? That is the stupidest thing I have heard in my entire life," MacTavish said trying to hold back a laugh. MacTavish had heard some pretty stupid stuff, so for him to say it was the stupidest thing he had ever heard, it had to be pretty stupid.

"The Russian could have made a robot to look like a deer, so when we let our guard down, it sends them our coordinates, and then they can ambush us," Ghost said.

"Alright, Ghost. Whatever you say," MacTavish said rolling his eyes.

Roach was silent through the entire ordeal. He honestly couldn't care less whether or not it was a spy deer, a normal one, or whatever the hell it was. He just wanted to get back to the base so he could take a nap. Lack of sleep was staring to catch up with him, and that would make him more prone to make really stupid mistakes. Roach shook his head to try to shake some of the sleep out of it, but it was only making him dizzy. MacTavish looked back and saw Roach shaking his head, and honestly thought that he was conflicted.

"Roach, are you ok?" MacTavish asked, his voice full of concern. MacTavish rarely showed emotion when he spoke, but this was one of those times.

Roach nodded.

"Ok… If you say so."

Team Alpha had arrived at their objected, but Team Charlie was nowhere in sight.

"Meat, Royce, where are you guys?" MacTavish whispered into his earpiece. He hoped they were still in one piece.

"We landed really far away from the drop off zone, and are trying to find our way back," Royce said. "Don't worry about us. Just continue with the mission. Royce out."

"Looks like we're on our own," MacTavish said.

MacTavish looked up and saw a small building.

"This must be their base of operations," MacTavish muttered to himself. "We're gonna take this nice and slow. We don't need to arouse any suspicion."

"Let's do this," Ghost said.

"Ghost, you go around back and take out any resistance. I'll take the front door, and Roach, it looks like there's a door on the right side, so you take that."

Roach, Ghost and MacTavish moved to their positions and slowly opened the door. When Roach walked in, he was amazed. The entire room was literally covered with blue prints.

"Whoever works here really plans their stuff out," he said to himself. By the looks of it, they had better Intel than the Task Force itself. Roach took the liberty to look around. Roach heard some footsteps behind him and turned to see what, or who was making it. He didn't even have time to register in his head what was going on before he felt a sharp pain in his head. Then everything went black.


	5. Chapter 5

When Roach woke up later, he was sitting in a chair. He tried to get up, but he was tied down to it. When Roach tired to scream for his captors to let him go, he discovered that they had also gagged him.

'_Damn, they did a good job of restraining me,'_ Roach thought. Roach didn't have much time for thinking when he felt the pain in his head again.

'_Ow, damn it. It feels like they hit me with a freaking crowbar.'_ Roach winced. His head was starting to throb.

'_Where's MacTavish and Ghost? How long have I been out?'_ Roach tried to look at the watch on his wrist, but his wrists were tied behind him. _'Maybe they left without me, because I took too long. Maybe they got captured too.'_ Roach was starting to panic. He was alone, somewhere in the middle of Russia, and the odds of him escaping unnoticed didn't look so good. Roach hated it when the odds were against him. He tried to feel for the radio in his back pocket. It was there and didn't feel damaged, but Roach wasn't able to fish it out. If only he could turn it on and turn on the distress beacon, then he could at least have a chance of being saved. It would be a small chance. A very, very, very small chance, but it was better than him trying to get out himself. Roach kept fiddling with his radio until he accidentally pushed it out of his pocket.

'_Great. There go my only means of communication.'_

A door behind Roach opened, and a group of people walking in. Roach could only assume they were talking in Russian, because one, he was still in Russia, and two, he couldn't understand a word of it.

Who Roach assumed was the leader stood in front of him, and stared him straight in the eye. He looked kind creepy, but that didn't faze Roach.

He took the gag out of Roach's mouth to his relief.

"What is your name," asked Roach in heavily accented English. His accent was so heavy that Roach almost didn't understand him.

Roach didn't respond. That earned him a smack in the face.

"I said, what is your name you bug?" the angry Russian spat. Roach smiled inwardly. He had no idea how close he was with the bug thing.

Roach still was silent.

"So you think if you play tough man and do not talk we will leave?" The Russian asked. "I do not think so," he said turning away from Roach, and using the momentum to punch him in the gut. It knocked the breath out of him, but Roach remained silent. Roach was trained not to talk during interrogations. He wasn't going to rat his team out. Even if the question was simple, he Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson would not speak.

Roach was punched in the stomach again.

'_Dude, not cool. I was in the middle of a moment,'_ Roach thought to himself. He was pretty sure that if and IF he made it out alive, he was going to have internal bleeding. This Russian knew how to throw a punch.

"Since you are uncooperative, we will beat answers out of you," he said. The Russian punched Roach as hard as he could in as many different spots as he could for 5 minutes. Of course to Roach, being the one who was getting there ass kicked, it felt longer. Roach was starting to get some pretty nasty looking bruises, and was starting to lose his battle of his pride.

"Roach," he muttered out. "M' name's Roach."

"Your really name idiot," Russian said growing frustrated with the lack of progress. He punched Roach in the mouth. Roach spit out the blood in the direction of the Russian.

"Gary Sanderson, can I go now?" Roach asked.

"Shut up smart alec," the Russian said.

"First you want me to talk, now you want me to shut up. Which is it?" Roach asked. He hated when people couldn't make up their minds.

"I want you to give me information without being smart ass," the Russian spit out. He was in no mood to play games. He wanted to get this over with so he could kill this "Roach" person. He saw a radio on the ground, and wasn't sure if he had contacted the rest of his group or not.

"Who do you work for?"

"Um, I work for a lot of people. Could you be a bit more specific?" Roach asked. He wasn't really going to tell. He was just bidding his time and seeing how far the Russian would go.

"I want all of them."

"Again, that's a lot of people. Do you want anyone in particular?" Roach asked. He could see the frustrated look on the Russian's face growing.

"Do you work for a General Shepherd?"

"There are a lot of generals with the last name of Shepherd," Roach noted.

This was getting him nowhere. This "Roach" man was really starting to get on his nerves, but he had strict orders not to kill him in case his friends came back. Then he could kill all of them at the same time. It would make his job a lot easier, but it wasn't worth going though this.

The Russian decided to give up and just leave "Roach" where he was. He would come back later when hunger and thirst set it. Then he would be sure to get any information he wanted. Even the toughest men break when they don't get any food or water.

The Russian walked to the door and turned the handle.

"So you're just going to leave me here?" Roach asked. "You're a really crappy interrogator."

That did it.

"What did you just say?" The Russian man asked.

"You heard me. You're a crappy interrogator. I could have gotten the information I needed and more if I were interrogating someone."

The Russian decided to leave before he did something he would regret. He closed and locked the door behind him and left Roach alone.

Ok, now Roach was fibbing when he said he could have done a better job as an interrogator. He was just trying to get the Russian mad to see how badly he wanted Roach alive. The Russian wasn't too bad at interrogating, but he really did a sucky job of restraining Roach. He put Roach in a metal chair, which could bend, and possibly break quite easily. He also forgot to check the chair to see if there were any sharp edges. Of course, Roach found one being the sneaky little bug he is.


	6. Chapter 6

Roach was trying to cut the ropes with the sharp edge of his chair for over an hour, but was getting nowhere. His head was throbbing, and he had cut his wrists quite a few times.

"This would be so much easier if I had a knife," Roach muttered to himself.

Roach kept on trying to saw the rope apart with the sharp edge of the chair, but he only succeeded in overbalancing and flipping over his chair and falling face first onto the ground. The sound of Roach falling had attracted the Russian's attention. He nearly ran back in.

"What is going on?" The Russian asked. He was in no mood to play games.

He looked around when he didn't hear an answer, and saw Roach laying on the ground with blood all over his hands. It wasn't a pretty sight. The Russian placed Roach so he was sitting up in the chair again.

"What happened?"

"Well, I was trying to scratch my nose, because it was itchy, and while trying to pull my arm out so I could scratch my nose, I fell over. I have a terrible balance problem," Roach lied.

The Russian rolled his eyes, got up and left. He didn't have time to be dealing with clumsy prisoners.

Roach growled to himself. He wasn't going to be able to cut the rope with the chair, and it didn't seem like he had any help on the way. Roach was screwed. He was totally screwed and he knew it. Roach was trying to clear his head, so he could think, but it wasn't working. He was too frustrated. His radio was on the ground, and probably dead at this point, so he couldn't contact anyone. Roach was about to give up hope when he heard,

"How are you holding up there Roach?"

'_Was that MacTavish?'_ Roach thought to himself. Then Roach realized that he couldn't respond back to MacTavish. '_Well now this really sucks.'_

"Come on Roach, talk to me," MacTavish said through the radio.

'_I'd love to MacTavish, but I'm a bit tied up at the moment.'_

Then Roach heard two people talking in Russian outside of the room. He hoped MacTavish would shut up, so the Russians wouldn't think to check his radio. But MacTavish probably wouldn't, and the Russians would find it and Roach would get beat up again, and yeah…

The head Russian guy came in and heard MacTavish said something on the radio.

"Who is that?" The Russian asked.

"Who is who?" Roach asked. That earned him a punch in the gut.

"I do not have time to play games with you, you stupid person. Who was that talking on radio?"

Roach had gotten the wind knocked out of him for another time.

"Who was that?" The Russian asked again. This guy was really starting to get on his nerves, but he had strict orders not to kill him. He was starting to think that the award would justify the consequence.

"My Captain. Happy now asshole?" Roach asked.

The Russian frowned and took Roach's radio. He took one look at it, then turned around and left.

"Great. Now I know I'm going to have a hard time getting out of here…"

Roach tried one more time to cut the rope with his chair, but gave up when he cut his wrist again. The rope was digging into the cuts on his wrist and they were starting to hurt.

Roach sighed. It was going to be a very long night.


	7. Chapter 7

Roach sighed. It was going to be a very long night.

Roach was starting to get tired from all the walking and struggling he had been doing.

"No, I will not go to sleep," he said to himself. It would be so much easier to stay awake if he wasn't tied up. Then he could move around, look for an exit, and get his blood pumping. Roach's eyes were starting to close against his will.

"Maybe… just… rest…" then Roach was out.

It was hours later when Roach woke up again. He didn't recognize where he was. He pulled against the bonds that were holding him in place, but they wouldn't give.

"Where the hell am I?" Roach asked out loud to himself.

"Hello American," Roach heard a Russian accented voice greet him.

"Great… Just what I need…"

"Nice to see you finally awake," the Russian said coming into the room. Roach didn't like the fact that he was wearing a lab coat.

"Yeah, it be even nicer if I wasn't here," Roach said. He noticed he was lying on a table. He looked down and noticed an absence of his shirt and gear.

"Where is my stuff?" Roach asked.

"Do not worry about your things. They are safe," the Russian replied.

"So what am I doing in here?" Roach asked. He had started looking around. This place looked like an operating room.

"You are here because you have information. Information that I want," the Russian said.

"How many times do I have to tell you people? I'm not going to tell you anything," Roach growled.

Roach knew he wasn't really in a position to threaten the man, but he was really thinking about it.

The Russian's face turned up into a smirk.

"I thought you would say that, but I have ways to make you talk," he said as he twirled a knife around in his hand. He laid the sharp blade against Roach's chest.

"I can end it all right here. Or you can cooperate and I will not hurt you."

Roach just growled.

The Russian placed more pressure on the knife until it broke the skin. Roach bit his lip.

"Are you going to cooperate?"

Roach shook his head. He was going to stay loyal to his team to the end.

The Russian slashed the knife across Roach's chest. Roach had to bite down hard on his lip to keep from crying out. That was no normal knife. Roach could tell that the Russian had coated it with something before he came in. It burned like the seven levels of hell.

"I know how much it stings, and I can make it stop. Just tell me what I want to know, and I will let you go back to your friends. I have them here. Only you can determine how much they will suffer," the Russian said with a smirk.

"You're lying," Roach growled. There was no way MacTavish and the rest of them could have gotten captured. They were too good.

The Russian walked over to a big window in the wall and flipped a switch. In the other room, were MacTavish and Ghost. They were on a table like Roach, but theirs were upright. They were tied but the wrists and ankles, and they didn't have their gear either. Their bodies were bruised and bloody.

"What the hell did you do to them?" Roach shouted trying to get out of his bonds.

"Same thing that will happen to you if you do not give me answers.

"Let them go. You're not going to get anything out of me!" Roach shouted. He tried to aim a kick at the Russian, but he could get his leg far enough.

The Russian started laughing, and slashed Roach's chest again with the knife. Roach started cursing.

"What do you want from me?" Roach choked out.

"Who do you work for?" the Russian asked getting into Roach's face. Roach was getting a little tired of people getting in his face.

"I already told your friend, I work for that guy," Roach said pointing at MacTavish.

The Russian rolled his eyes. "I see you want to make this hard. I have been patient up to now. But you seem determined to test it. I will not keep playing games with you. Give me information I want, or you and your friends will die," the Russian growled out. He was getting pissed. Not even starvation was seeming to break this man.

"You can do whatever you want to me. I am NOT going to betray my team," Roach said. He spit in the Russian's face.

"Have it your way then," the Russian said angrily as he wiped the spit off of his face and impaled Roach's leg with his knife.


	8. Chapter 8

"Have it your way then," the Russian said angrily as he wiped the spit off of his face and impaled Roach's leg with his knife.

Roach wasn't able to hold back his scream of pain. He knew he was losing blood and losing it fast. A few more minutes of this and Roach was going to pass out. He was pretty sure that the Russian had hit an artery.

"Are you going to cooperate now?" The Russian asked.

Roach barely nodded.

"Good," the Russian said with a smug smile on his face.

"Don't tell him ANYTHING, Roach," Ghost called out from the other room. Roach was a bit surprised that he could hear him. He would have thought that the glass was sound proof.

"You shut up in there!" the Russian shouted at Ghost. He would be glad when he could finally kill these bastards.

"What do you want to know?" Roach mumbled out.

"No Roach! Don't do it!" Ghost was begging at this point.

"Why are you here?"

"We got a bomb threat. Came to kill it."

"Who told you there was bomb here?"

"We were briefed on the way over."

"Interesting," the Russian said.

"What's even more interesting is how two men got through your security without a scratch, and managed to get in here," a voice said after two men had burst through the door. The Russian was extremely tired of this at this point.

Roach looked up and saw Meat and Royce. They had come to save him and the rest of the team.

"But sad part is you won't live long enough to do any good," the Russian said pulling a pistol out of a holster he had on his thigh that was covered up by his lab coat.

Meat and Royce both took a shot at the crazy Russian before he was able to level his pistol at them. He dropped dead to the ground.

"Are you alright Roach?" Royce asked walking up to Roach as he started to undo his binds.

"Do I look alright? I got slashed in the chest and he left a freaking knife in my leg," Roach muttered. He meant it to come out more angrily, but he was too tired.

Royce worked on getting the knife out of Roach's leg while trying to stop the bleeding. Meat was trying to get the door open so he could get to MacTavish and Ghost to get them out. Meat couldn't get the door open, because he didn't have a key card, so he went to the window and smashed it with the butt of his gun. The window shattered on impact and he climbed through and got Ghost a loose.

"How are you sir?"Meat asked.

"Better off than those two. Hurry up and get MacTavish out. We need to get him and Roach out of here," Ghost replied. He was a little unsteady on his feet, but he walked over to the still unconscious Captain and unbound his wrists. Meat undid his ankles.

"Where's Nikolai?" Ghost asked. He knew he could carry MacTavish, but he couldn't carry him for long in this state.

"He's right outside. You can't really hear it form in here."

By this time, Royce had gotten Roach free, and had stopped the bleeding in his leg. He was supporting most of Roach's weight.

The walk to the chopper was a long one, but they made it. Archer and Toad had been outside the chopper to make sure no enemies had tried to enter the building while Meat and Royce had gone inside to rescue the rest of the time.

"Is everyone here?" Nikolai asked after Royce helped Roach up into the chopper.

"We're good Nikolai. Get us out of here," Ghost said as he sat down next to MacTavish. He was still unconscious. Everyone was a bit worried that he had a head injury, but couldn't be sure until they got back to the base.

Roach put his leg up across a few of the chairs to keep it elevated.

"We're going to have to get you to Doc so he can check out that leg. It looks like there was something on that knife," Royce said to Roach.

"No duh, Sherlock. It stings like hell," Roach muttered.

"Well with any luck, we'll be back to the base in a little while," Royce said taking a seat on the floor.

The bad thing for Roach was that his luck wasn't exactly holding up today.


	9. Chapter 9

"What's that?" Roach asked grumpily as he was awoken by the shrill sound.

"RPG!" Nikolai shouted from the cockpit.

The RPG crashed into the chopper, and blew off the tail rotor. The chopper spun all the way until it hit the ground.

Roach woke up to someone shaking him.

"Roach! Wake up!" They whispered urgently.

Roach opened his eyes, and his vision was blurry.

"C'mon Roach, we need to get moving. They're coming for us," the voice said again.

Roach recognized it to be Captain MacTavish.

"What's going up?" Roach asked very confused as he tried to sit up.

MacTavish helped him up to his feet.

"The Russian heard us crash. We need to get out of here before they find us," MacTavish said urgently as he tried to pull Roach to safety.

"What about the others?" Roach asked digging his heels into the ground frantically looking around for the rest of the team.

"They're already out of here. I came back here to drag your ass out of here before you get hurt. Or more hurt than you already are," MacTavish said as he looked over Roach for the first time since they split up to look around in the safe house.

Roach finally allowed MacTavish to drag him from the crash site.

Roach tried to take a step, but his legs gave out from underneath of him. He had to hold onto MacTavish for support which almost sent them both tumbling down for the ground.

"I can't move my legs!" Roach exclaimed in panic.

MacTavish was weak from blood loss, and being tortured by the Russian Ultranationalist, but he was all out of other options. He picked up Roach and threw him over his shoulder. MacTavish stumbled through the woods as fast as he could to get to their meeting spot without falling over or dropping Roach.

Roach did his best not to pass out.

"We're almost there Roach. Stay with me," MacTavish muttered between clenched teeth and heavy breathing.

"Tryin' Capt'n," Roach mumbled. He was on the edge of consciousness.

Ghost saw a tall and bulky figure making its way towards him and the rest of the team. He was waiting for MacTavish to come back from rescuing Roach so they could all get to the safe house.

Ghost leveled his gun to the figure's head.

"Put the damn gun down Ghost," he heard the figure say with a strong Scottish accent.

Ghost dropped his gun and ran to meet MacTavish. Together they carried Roach into the small cave they had stopped in.

They laid Roach down next to Archer.

"Is he still alive?" Nikolai asked. He wasn't much better off than the rest of the team. He had many gaping wounds full of glass from the windshield of the helicopter. Ghost had managed to get most of the shards of glass out, but he couldn't get all of them. He had a particularly nasty cut just above his left eyebrow that looked like it was still bleeding.

"He's alive but he's not in very good shape. How's Archer?" MacTavish asked. He looked like he was about to pass out on the spot.

"Alive, but barely. You need to sit down Captain," Toad said. "If we have to carry anyone else, then we aren't going to make it.

MacTavish sat down next to Archer and Roach.

"Where are we going to go now? We don't even know where we really are, and have no idea how close the nearest Hospital. Even if we did know where it was, we have no way of getting there," MacTavish said.

"Well sir, I can honestly say, we're totally screwed," Ghost complained.

"Agreed Lieutenant. We really are," MacTavish agreed hanging his head in defeat.


	10. Chapter 10

"_Well sir, I can honestly say, we're totally screwed," Ghost complained._

"_Agreed Lieutenant. We really are," MacTavish agreed hanging his head in defeat. _

"There has to be a way out of here. I refuse to just sit here and let those bastards come and find us," Ghost said standing up.

"Does anyone still have a map?" He asked.

Meat and Royce fished around in there packs. They were the least damaged out of the group.

"I do," Royce said pulling out his map. It was a bit crumpled, but it was still readable.

"Give it here," Ghost said spreading it out on the ground.

Nikolai scooted a little closer to get a better look of the map.

"We took off here," Ghost said pointing at the spot that was highlighted on the map.

"We were flying 100 kilometers an hour for about 2 and a half hour," Nikolai said. He remembered setting the chopper to fly about that fast.

Ghost did that math in his head.

"That would put us roughly in this area," Ghost said pointing to a spot about 250 kilometers away from their original position.

"That's pretty much the middle of nowhere," Nikolai said.

"Are you sure there isn't anything out here?" Ghost asked, defeat almost evident in his voice.

"There is small town about 15 miles away, but we would never make it before sunrise," Nikolai said looking at his watch. Sunrise was about two hours away.

"We can't get that far that quick," MacTavish piped in. Not when we are all weak from blood loss, and more than a little battered up from the crash.

"True, and if we do have to stop, we don't know if there is any place where we could take shelter," Toad said.

"Wait, did you say we were around this area?" Nikolai asked suddenly.

"Yeah," Ghost said skeptically. "Why?"

"I know someone who lives two miles south of here," Nikolai said.

Everyone looked up hopefully.

"And you're sure that this "friend" would be willing to help us?" MacTavish asked.

"Yes," Nikolai said getting up.

"The two strongest people need to carry Roach and Archer. We're getting out of here after all," MacTavish said with a small smile on his face.  
Ghost got up and picked up Roach. Toad lifted Archer and threw him over his shoulders in a fireman's lift.

"Follow me my friends. His house is this way," Nikolai said heading south, exiting the small cave they had just been vacating.

The team walked quietly, but swiftly as they could. They needed to get to the house before sunrise, so they wouldn't be found, but they also needed to move quietly so the Ultranationalists moving around in the woods wouldn't be alerted to their presence.

They had to stop many times so people could catch their breath.

"Come one MacTavish," Ghost panted. "At this rate, we'll never make it."

"Hold you're bloody horses, I'm moving as fast as I can.

Ghost was worrying. He glanced at Nikolai's watch. Thirty minutes. They were still quite a ways away.


	11. Chapter 11

Ghost was worrying. He glanced at Nikolai's watch. Thirty minutes. They were still quite a ways away.

"Almost there my friends," Nikolai said. Everyone could see a house in the distance. Nikolai started to walk faster so everyone else did too.

"Are you sure this is the right house, Nikolai?" MacTavish panted.

"Yes, I would know this friend's house anywhere," Nikolai said.

They had reached the door. Everyone who wasn't carrying anyone was doubled over trying to catch their breath.

Nikolai knocked on the door. After a few minutes someone answered.

"What do you want?" the person asked opening the door just a sliver.

"It's me Alexei. Just older, and more battered up," Nikolai said.

"Is it really you Niko? It has been years," Alexei said opening the door wider for everyone to come in.

Alexei led them all to the living room.

"What happened to you all? You look like you were in helicopter crash."

"We were. We need a place to hide from the Ultranationalists. They heard us crash," Nikolai explained.

"I have rooms for your friends to stay in, and plenty of medical supplies to help them. Follow me," Alexei said leading them the team to the rooms.

Toad laid Archer down on one of the beds, and Ghost laid Roach down on the others.

"You all are going to be here for while. Get comfortable," Alexei said leaving the room.

Captain MacTavish made his way up the steps.

"How long do you think we're gonna stay here?" He asked.

"No clue Sir. Roach and Archer need to get better first. And you need to take it easy before you pass out," Ghost chastised.

MacTavish looked down at Roach. "Poor bug. Only 20 years old."

Alexei came back up with a black bag.

"Everything you need should be in here. If you need more, let me know," he said dropping the bag in between the beds.

He turned and went downstairs.

"So where exactly do you know this guy from?" MacTavish asked.

"He was in my unit during the war. He was our medic," Nikolai explained.

"That would explain the medical stuff," Ghost said.

"Yeah, but I still don't trust this guy," MacTavish said.

"It takes a while, but he is very trustworthy," Nikolai said.

MacTavish wasn't really wasn't sure whether or not he could trust Alexei, but he was going to have to for a while. At least until the team was better. Then they would be out of here and back to America. MacTavish wouldn't be surprised if Shepherd was already looking for them. He would just have to wait and see.


	12. Chapter 12

MacTavish and the rest of the team decided to turn in for the night. It was very eventful, and they were ready to finally get some rest in a safe place.

Roach woke up a few hours after the team went to sleep. He looked around and didn't recognize the place he was in. He was in a bed, and this confused him. Before he passed out, he remembered MacTavish dragging him to the spot where his team was meeting, and that's all he remembered.

"Where am I?" he asked to himself.

Roach forced himself into s sitting position, and had to stop for a few minutes to get his head to stop spinning. Once his head was clear, he slowly got off of the bed. He looked around. Archer was asleep in the bed across the room. He remembered Archer was injured too, so he didn't bother him. Roach walked out the door, and saw MacTavish sleeping against the door frame. Roach sat down next to him.

"MacTavish wake up," Roach whispered gently shaking the Captain awake.

"Five more minutes, mom," MacTavish said turning the other way.

"MacTavish it's Roach."

MacTavish woke up.

"What are you doing up?" MacTavish asked rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"I just woke up. Where are we?" Roach asked.

"We're at one of Nikolai's friend's houses. He was a medic back in the day," MacTavish explained.

"How long are we going to stay here?" Roach asked.

"I'm not sure kid. Archer is pretty injured, and you should still be in bed," MacTavish admonished.

Roach was silent.

"Come on mate, let's get you back in bed," MacTavish said helping Roach up.

After MacTavish got Roach back in bed, he pulled up a chair next to the bed.

"What exactly happened back there?" Roach asked.

"We were compromised. Ultranationalists somehow knew we were there."

"Why do all of our mission's get compromised?" Roach asked.

"I don't know, but I'm just glad we are all alive," MacTavish said.

That's when MacTavish noticed a red spot a red spot on Roach's shirt.

"What?" Roach asked when he noticed MacTavish was staring at him.

"You're bleeding," MacTavish said as he scrambled for the left over medical supplies that were in the room. He found some alcohol, and bandages.

"Take off your shirt," MacTavish commanded.

Roach managed to get his shirt off and MacTavish examined the wound.

"You ripped your stitches," MacTavish said looking for more stitches in the bag. He not only found stitches, but some local anesthetic.

"Ugh," Roach complained.

"Don't worry, you won't feel a thing," MacTavish assured.

"It's not the stitches. I just don't like needle," Roach said looking away.

"You get shot at nearly every day, and you're afraid of needle?" MacTavish asked.

Roach nodded.

"Don't worry, I'll be fast."

MacTavish quickly stitched up Roach's side and put clean bandages on.

"Done," MacTavish said putting all of the left over supplies away.

Roach yawned.

"Get some sleep you bugger. I'll get you something to eat in the morning.

"Thanks Captain," Roach said before he turned over to go back to sleep.

"No problem," MacTavish said leaving the room to go sit back by the door frame. He let himself slide down the wall until he was sitting against it. MacTavish couldn't wait until he could get out of here and sleep on his own bed. Until then, he had to remain strong for the rest of the team, and try to get them all out in one piece.


	13. Chapter 13

Everyone in the Task Force slept in quite late that day. Captain MacTavish of course was the first one up. He walked around and checked on all of the sleeping Task Force members to make sure they were alright. He looked over Archer, and he looked a lot better than he did last night. He wasn't as pale or as weak looking. He looked like me might wake up today.

MacTavish saved Roach for last. He wasn't injured quite as badly as Archer, but he wasn't in the best condition either.

Roach was still asleep when MacTavish walked up to him. The new bandages weren't bloody, so that meant Roach hadn't torn them in his sleep, and that was a good thing.

"You awake?" MacTavish asked gently shaking Roach awake.

"I was," the young Sergeant replied turning his back to MacTavish as he tried to fall back asleep.

"Are you feeling alright?"

"Tired, which could be prevented if you let me get some sleep," Roach said ending the conversation.

MacTavish chuckled and left Roach alone. He nearly ran into Ghost though as he was leaving.

"Sorry sir, but we have a problem," Ghost said.

"Well, spit it out then," MacTavish huffed, slightly annoyed.

"We have multiple tangos in our sights. They've found us," Ghost reported.

"You've got to be bloody kidding me," MacTavish said running to the nearest window. There were at least ten armed Ultranationalists on this side, and there were bound to be more around the house.

"We need to get out of here," MacTavish said moving away from the window.

"How sir? They have us surrounded. Nikolai went out earlier to check on the chopper, but there is no way he could take all them out by himself," Ghost said.

MacTavish thought for a minute.

"We're going to have to fight our way out."

"Sir, that's suicide! We'd never make it!" Ghost exclaimed.

"What we do every day, most normal people would consider suicide," MacTavish said going into the hallway to grab a Sniper Rifle out of the storage. Ghost did the same.

"What's going on?" A sleepy Roach asked standing in the doorway.

"We've got trouble, that's what," MacTavish said pushing past Roach to get back in the room. He set his rifle up on the ledge so he could aim at the Ultranationalists.

Roach, not being the best sniper just grabbed a G36C and crouched next to MacTavish.

"I'm going to get Toad, Meat, and Royce. They should be able to help."

Ghost left to tell the other three conscious 141 members what was going on and to get them ready for the impending battle.

"Roach, are you sure you're up to this?" MacTavish asked. Roach still looked a little unsteady on his feet.

"I'll be fine sir. If I fall over, just leave me and keep fighting. I'll get back up eventually."

MacTavish wasn't sure if he was joking or not but shrugged it off. He turned his head so he could see out the window. There were even more Ultranationalists now. Just as MacTavish was pulling his head back, someone outside had shot the window.

"Sir, get down!" Roach exclaimed nearly tackling MacTavish to the ground.

"That was a close one," MacTavish said.

"Yeah, it was," Roach agreed.


	14. Chapter 14

_**I'm sorry for the loooooooong wait and such a short chapter, but I've been having the worst writers block and honestly no time to write. Once my school's basket ball team's season finishes and life calms down a bit, I should have a lot more time to write and a lot more updates for everyone **___

"_That was a close one," MacTavish said._

"_Yeah, it was," Roach agreed._

Soap ducked under the window, and headed toward the door. Ghost nearly ran into him with the other members of the team. They were all carrying weapons too.

"Someone get Archer, and make sure Roach gets down in one piece too. We're gonna have to hope that Nikolai didn't move his chopper while checking on it. We run to where he's got it, and we're getting the hell out of here," MacTavish instructed. Everyone headed for the door, except for Toad who went back to get Archer and drag Roach out as well.

Everyone stacked up by the door and MacTavish signaled for them to move out. Just as they knocked down the door to leave, the Ultranationalists tried barging in. Ghost sprayed a round of bullets, and they went down like a ton of bricks. There wasn't much cover until they reached the wood line 200 meters to their south.

"Ghost, cover our six. We've gotta make a run for it.

"Yes sir," Ghost responded. "Let's do this."

The Task Force ran as hard and as fast as they could until they reached the woods, dodging many bullets along the way. There were a few too many close calls then MacTavish would have like, but they made it there mostly unscathed. Toad was a little banged up from carrying Archer and supporting Roach. Roach's legs had given out on him during the run, so Toad had to practically carry him as well.

"How far is the chopper from here sir?" Ghost asked helping Toad keep Roach standing.

"Should be about a click to the south. Nikolai didn't want any attention to be drawn to the house because of unusual vehicles," MacTavish said.

Ghost nodded and threw Roach over his shoulder. MacTavish took point, and led the team a click to the south.

"Do you see the chopper?" Ghost asked looking around, a bit concerned that Nikolai may have moved it.

"I think it's right over there. Looks like Nikolai tried to hide it in some of the trees.

The chopper seemed to be covered with leaves and other various things that were found in the woods. Nikolai looked like he was just putting the finishing touches on the camouflage.

"Nikolai, get the chopper ready!"MacTavish yelled jumping down from a small ledge, racing toward him.

"But I just finished hiding it sir," Nikolai complained.

"We've got bigger problems then that mate," Ghost said catching up to MacTavish.

"Are you being followed?" Nikolai asked starting to pull some of the debris off of the chopper.

"Yeah, get us in the air!" MacTavish exclaimed before nearly breaking open the door. Roach and Archer were placed in the chopper before everyone else piled in. Nikolai climbed into the cockpit.

"Where are we going MacTavish?" Nikolai yelled over the whirl of the blades.

"Just take us to someplace safe," MacTavish replied as the pings of bullets hitting the side of the chopper started. Nikolai had them in the air in almost no time.

"Sir, when are we gonna be able to just get back to the base?" Roach asked.

"When we are all stable enough to make the trip over," MacTavish replied leaning his head against the cool metal of the side of the chopper. MacTavish himself was starting to wonder if they were ever going to get back to the base.


	15. Chapter 15

Hello to all my Readers out there. If anyone reading this has read my other story Depression Wars, yes I deleted it. That story for me is really personal, because I have a severe case of depression. It was getting quite a few negative reviews, and that really hurt me on the inside. I was putting my feelings into that story, and trying to open up through the story, but that didn't work out, so I just took it down. If anyone who supports the story wants me to keep going with it, PM me and I might put it up somewhere else. I'm not sure that I will though…

As for my other stories, I'm gonna need to take a break from FanFiction, so it might be a while… well, a long while before any updating gets done. I'm sorry if this upsets you, but I've lost my will to write, and it's gonna take a while for it to come back, if it ever does come back.

If there is anyone out there who really wants me to continue Call of Duty: Schoolized, or Roach's Bad Day. Review on the story, or PM me, and depending on how many people want me to continue, I'll think about it. Even if there are a lot of people, it still will take some time.

I'm sorry if you expected this to be a new chapter, but I thought this was important to let everyone know. I do apologize if this upsets anyone, but I need to get my life together before I can do much else.


	16. Chapter 16

_**I'm really sorry that I haven't been updating for a really long time, and I feel really bad about it, but I needed to get a few things in my life in order first. Life has been winding down quite a bit since summer started, so I've finally been able to write a bit. School is over (even though I'm taking a summer class) I got a job , and I started seeing a therapist, so my depression is getting a bit easier to handle. I tried to make this chapter a bit longer then I usually do, and I'm not sure if I did, but I hope you enjoy. Please read and review. **_

The flight was one of the longest Roach had ever taken. Maybe it was only long to Roach, because he didn't know the destination. Time seemed to be something quite unreliable these days. Everything felt so much longer then it really was. The pressing silence was no help either. MacTavish, Ghost, Roach, Toad and Nikolai were the only ones awake, but no one said a word. MacTavish and Ghost were both looking out of the sides of the chopper at the scenes below them. It looked like they were flying over a bunch of woods from where Roach was sitting. Toad was sitting opposite of Roach, and he was sitting with Archer's head in his lap, hoping that he would wake up soon. Nikolai was sitting in the cockpit, occasionally making a comment of needing to change directions slightly. Other than that, the only other sounds were the rhythmic thumping of the blades of the chopper.

"Captain?" Roach asked. The silence of his fellow teammates was becoming too much to bear.

"Yeah Roach?" MacTavish responded.

"What do you think is going to happen to us?" Roach asked quietly. He knew instantly that that was the question on everyone's minds, because everyone looked up at MacTavish.

MacTavish felt the weight of everyone's eyes on him, and he cleared his throat.

"To be honest, I don't know… We need fuel, supplies, and there aren't many places where we can get them out here. We're wanted men in this part of the world. We can't just walk into a city and go buy things, and we aren't strong enough yet to fight," MacTavish finally said looking down.

Whatever instance of hope had quickly vanished. The reality of their situation hit them all hard. They were all tired, hungry, injured, and homesick. They knew when they signed up for the Task Force, life as they knew it was going to turn into a living hell, but they never thought it would have gotten this bad.

"Sir, I think I have found a place for us to land.

"Are there any of your 'friends' there?" MacTavish asked skeptically.

Nikolai looked down, sheepishly.

"Just get us on the ground," MacTavish sighed.

Nikolai started the descent of the chopper, and soon the Task Force was on the ground.

"There are no houses, and no people around for miles. I know this forest well. We should be safe here. At least for a while," Nikolai said jumping out of the chopper.

"Looks like we'll be sleeping on the ground for a while," Ghost said looking around. No one had brought tents.

Roach looked back to the chopper, thinking about Archer. Would he be strong enough to hide out in the woods with the rest of them?

"I have thought ahead my friends. I always carry tents with me just in case of situation like this," Nikolai said grabbing two full sized tents out of the chopper.

"You plan for stuff like this?" MacTavish asked.

"No, but I believed in being prepared."

"Well then. Let's go find a spot to stay. Roach, Ghost, you've got the tents," MacTavish ordered.

Ghost and Roach each grabbed a tent and started walking into the woods.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Ghost asked concerned. They were only 20 feet away from the chopper. He didn't need Roach's legs to give out on him again. There was no way Ghost was going to carry Roach to a good camping site and back.

"I'm fine. I just needed to rest. Something that none of us have been getting a lot of lately," Roach responded slightly out of breath. It was taking everything inside of him to not drop to the ground. His legs felt like lead, yet weak at the same time, like they wouldn't support his weight.

Ghost and Roach walked for another 20 minutes before they reached a small clearing in the forest.

"Hey Ghost, does this look like a good place?" Roach asked looking around. He hoped Ghost said yes. Roach didn't think he could walk much further. He was already trying to figure out how he was going to get back to the chopper.

"Looks good enough to me. It's far enough back that I don't think anyone would come looking for us, but it's also close enough that we can all get here in one piece," Ghost replied.

Roach gave a sigh of relief, and slid down a tree until he was on the ground.

"Hey bug, are you alright?" Ghost asked rushing over to Roach's position.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine. I told you I'm just tired."

And Roach wasn't lying. His legs felt like jelly, and there was no way they were going to hold him up anymore. All of this reminded Roach of one of his camping trips with his Boy Scout troop.

"_Come on Sanderson, we don't have all day!" the troop leader yelled over his shoulder, not caring to look back._

_Gary was seriously lagging behind. The rest of the boys were much stronger and bigger than he was, and they had no problem on this three mile hike. Gary on the other hand was struggling to walk on the flat trails. Gary was the smallest boy in the troop, and he got teased relentlessly for it. It wasn't his idea to join the Boy Scouts. He didn't even have a say in it. He came home one day from school, and his parents said that they had some good news for him. They told him that they signed him up to be a part of the local Boy Scout troop. Gary though it was anything but good news. The local troop was mean, and the boys were a few years older than Gary was._

"_Yeah, Sanderson, get your feet moving," Nathan, another boy in the troop teased. He shoved Gary roughly as he passed him to catch up with the other boys. Gary tripped over a rock that was embedded in the path, and fell into a puddle of mud. He got up and tried to wipe the excess mud off of his uniform. He could hear the laughing of the other boys, and even the troop leaders ahead of him. Gary was miserable. Not only was he tired, but now he was cold, wet, and dirty. He got back on the path, until he caught up with the rest of the group. _

_The troop was stopped in a small clearing where they had already started setting up the camp. A few of the boys were helping the troop leaders to set up the tents, while some were out getting water from the stream. Two of the boys were working on getting the fire started, while the rest of them were digging the latrines. _

"_Hey Sanderson. I heard you tripped and fell in the mud back there. Why don't you let me help you get cleaned up," Gary heard a sinister voice say from behind him. He knew that voice. It was Darien. He and a few of his cronies seemed to make it a daily practice to see how many different ways they could torture Gary. _

_Gary turned around. Darien had an evil smirk on his face. Gary tried to run away to the safety of the troop leaders, but Darien caught him by the collar and lifted him up. Gary could feel the collar cutting into his windpipe._

"_Let me go!" Gary choked, as he struggled to get his feet back on the ground. _

"_Not a chance pipsqueak," Darien smirked. One of his friends placed a strong looking rope in his hand. Darien walked over to a tree and roughly slammed Gary into it, knocking the wind out of him._

_Gary squirmed, and tried to get down, but Darien had a good hold on him._

"_You aren't going anywhere, bug. You'll be lucky if you can get out of this tree by the end of the night," Darien said with an evil smirk on his face. He started tying Gary into the tree, and he tied him tightly. Gary could barely move any of his limbs an inch._

"_Hey Nathan," Darien said. "We should leave him out here and let him watch for bears. What do you think?" Darien held up his hand for a high five._

"_That' a great idea," Nathan grinned, slapping his friends hand._

_Gary felt a shudder run down his spine. He was afraid of bears. The last thing he wanted to see was a bear when he was tied up, and couldn't even run away._

"Hey bug, are you alright?" Someone asked. Roach felt someone shaking his shoulder.

"No! Don't touch me!" Roach screamed out.

"Woah, Roach, calm down. It's just me," Ghost said kneeling in front of him. "Are you alright?"

This was one of those rare moments when Ghost had removed his sunglasses. Roach looked up into his pale blue eyes.

"Yeah, just… tired."

"Come on," Ghost said holding out his hand. Roach took it, and Ghost helped him to his feet.

"Let's get everyone else over here and get settled in for the night. You look like you could use the sleep," Ghost said.

"Yeah, more than you could imagine…" Gary said, putting his arm around Ghost's shoulders. Ghost supported the Sargent and helped him walk back to the chopper.


	17. Chapter 17

When Ghost and Roach returned to the chopper, MacTavish and Nikolai were getting the tents out of the chopper so they could be carried to their camping site. Toad had managed to get Archer out of the chopper. All of his wounds had been hastily bandaged up and he was currently lying on the ground with his head propped up on a parachute pack.

MacTavish looked up when he heard the sound of dead leaves crunching under feet. His grip on his pistol relaxed when he saw it was only Ghost and Roach. He frowned as Ghost escorted Roach over onto a rock to rest.

"Roach, are you sure you're up to walking all the way back? We have a lot of stuff to carry."

"I'll be fine Captain," Roach reassured with a dismissive wave of his hand. He was far from fine. His legs were cramping up, but they felt extremely weak. His side was hurting from where some fragments of the chopper had sliced through the skin. It wasn't bleeding, which was good, but being this exposed to the elements made it much more likely for it to get infected. Normally, infections were something that could be treated quickly with the proper medicine, but since they were out on there on in the middle of a Russian forest, an infection would be deadly.

MacTavish sighed. "How far is the clearing?" He asked.

"It's about a twenty minute walk that way," Ghost said, pointing him in the right direction.

"Come on Nikolai," MacTavish said as he picked up one of the tents and slung it on his shoulder. "Let's get the tents set up and then come back. Ghost, make sure Roach stays there. I don't want him walking while I'm gone."

"Yes sir," Ghost said, moving to sit closer to Roach.

Nikolai picked up the other tent and stood next to MacTavish. "After you my friend."

Roach frowned. "Captain, I'm not a kid. I'm fine. Let me help you."

"You're staying right where you are Roach, and that's final."

Roach frowned but held his tongue. He didn't really want to spark an argument with the Captain.

MacTavish led Nikolai further into the woods to start getting things ready. The set up the tents in the clearing and started gathering a bit of firewood so that there would be less work to do when they returned.

Ghost looked up at Roach. "Come on bug, it could be worse."

"I know it could be… I just feel so useless. I'm always the one getting injured, and your or the Captain, or someone always has to take care of me. I'm a liability to the whole team. I've definitely earned my call sign. I'm always getting hurt, but no matter what you do to me, I won't die."

"I don't think that's such a bad thing. It means you're strong. You can keep going no matter what life throws at you. You've probably taken more bullets then the rest of the whole team combined and you're still up and fighting. I'm honestly surprised that you don't have lead poisoning. You've been blown off more rooftops, and crashed in more helicopters than anyone I know, and you're still alive. You may not realize how amazing that is, but I sure as hell do," Ghost explained.

Roach was silent. He didn't know how to reply to that. That was probably also the longest speech he had ever heard Ghost give. Ghost was by no means the silent one on the team when they weren't on a mission. He was always voicing his opinion, but he always knew how to say what he wanted in as few words as possible. For him to give a speech this long… Well, it left Roach baffled.

The sat in comfortable silence for a while longer until MacTavish and Nikolai came back.

Ghost looked up as he heard the breaking of twigs. MacTavish stepped into the clearing not long after. Nikolai was right on his heels.

"Are we ready to start moving?" He asked.

Ghost nodded and stood up before offering a hand to Roach. Roach looked up and took it and Ghost helped him to his feet.

MacTavish was helping Toad to get Archer on his back. "Are you sure you don't want me to carry him?"

"It's alright Captain. I just want him to wake up soon." Toad was very worried that Archer hadn't woken up yet. It was no secret on base that they were best friends. There were even rumors floating around that they were more.

Roach put an arm around Ghost's shoulder and Ghost helped him to the clearing. Toad was carrying Archer and MacTavish and Nikolai were carrying the rest of their supplies.

It was a slow trek to their camp site, but they eventually did make it. Ghost set Roach down next to what appeared to be a hastily made fire pit. Toad took Archer into one of the tents to look over his wounds and change the bandages. MacTavish and Nikolai finished collecting firewood and started making a fire.

Ghost was looking through some of their supplies. "Hey Captain?"

"Aye?" MacTavish was stoking the fire, trying to make sure it didn't go out as soon as they got it started.

"What are we going to about food? We have a bit of rations, but not enough to last us too long. Maybe a week at best."

MacTavish frowned. "And I'm assuming we don't have enough gas for you to fly and get us more," he said to Nikolai.

"I do not my friend. I have gas to get to base and that is all," Nikolai said, putting some firewood down near the fire.

MacTavish sighed. "Then in a week, we have to try and get back to the base. Sooner if we can. Staying here for long isn't an option." He put a few logs on the fire and made sure they caught fire before standing up.

"But sir, what if-" Ghost started.

"There are no buts Ghost," MacTavish interrupted. "We're leaving in a week. We'll go back to the base at get everyone the medical attention they need. Doc will be able to patch them all up good as new. They'll get better and we'll move on."

Ghost frowned but refrained from saying more. He honestly wasn't quite certain that they would all be stable for such a long flight, but he couldn't go against the Captain's orders.

MacTavish sighed and walked over to the empty tent. "Let's all just get some sleep. We'll feel better in the morning." He disappeared into the tent for the rest of the evening.

Ghost looked up at the sky. The sun was only beginning to set, painting the sky with an orange hue.

Nikolai looked up as well, watching the sky as it changed colors. It wasn't often that he got a chance to just sit down and relax. Even if he was on the run.

Roach had been silent the entire time, watching the others converse and just sit. He even looked up to look at the sky. As a child, he used to love looking at the clouds during the day and stargazing at night. Laying out in the middle of the woods like this reminded him a bit of those days.

Ghost laid back on the ground with his hands behind his head. He watched as the clouds traversed across the sky until it grew dark enough that he couldn't see them anymore. By this time, Nikolai had retired in the tent with Archer and Toad.

Ghost looked over at Roach. "Hey bug, you still awake?"

Roach turned his head to look at Ghost. "I'm up. Something wrong?"

"No. Just seeing if you're up. It's been a long day. You want to get some sleep?" Ghost asked, standing up and wiping the dirt off of is back.

"Yeah. It's been a long day…" Roach managed to get up on his own. Ghost offered him an arm and helped him into the tent where MacTavish was sleeping. Or was supposed to be sleeping.

"Captain, are you awake?" Roach asked, laying down next to MacTavish.

"Aye, I'm awake. I can't sleep." He turned over, facing away from Roach.

Roach sighed and laid down. Ghost laid down next to him, curling up on his side. He removed his sunglasses and placed them where they wouldn't be crushed in his sleep.

Roach laid on his back, unable to really curl up on either side. "Good night Captain. Good night Ghost."

"Night Roach," MacTavish said.

"Night bug," Ghost said. He already sounded half asleep.

Roach closed his eyes, feeling sleep trying to pull him under quickly. He didn't realize just how tired he was. Between being injured, being nearly blown out of the sky, and trekking around in the woods, he had had a long day. He was grateful when he fell into a dreamless sleep that night.


End file.
